Personal Trivia
by Write-To-You
Summary: Brainy and Nia are always paired together for Personal Trivia game night. Nia is sick of getting her butt kicked, and so she and Brainy turn the tables on their friends.


**Author's Note: Okayokayokay so I was actually reading someone ****_else's_**** Brainia fanfiction and I got this ideaaa and I think it'll be loads of fun. Wow wasn't THAT a great and descriptive Author's Note *facepalm* **

It was like clockwork. Every few game nights, Kara would get a big grin on her face and say, "Let's play Personal Trivia!" Everyone would eagerly agree... except Brainy and Nia.

They had nothing against Personal Trivia. The game was basically a deck of question cards that one member of a two-person team asked the other. Then the other person had to answer the question about their teammate. Knowing each other well was key, which was why the game always frustrated Brainy and Nia so much.

See, they were _always_ paired together. Every. Single. Time. When game night consisted of them, Kara, Alex, J'onn, James, Kelly and Lena, it usually broke up with Kara and Lena on a team, Alex and J'onn on a team, and James and Kelly on a team. Or nights that Kara and Alex, James and Lena (awkward) and Kelly and J'onn went together, and then Brainy and Nia had the upper hand because Kelly and J'onn didn't know each other. Like at all. But they still managed to lose, because nobody beat the Danvers sisters.

It was actually kind of strange. Brainy and Nia had tried a few times to pair up with other people. It would make perfect sense for Nia to go with Kara or James and Brainy to go with Alex or Lena. But they were always flat-out ignored. And Nia was starting to think it was on purpose.

"Hey," she said to Brainy after yet _another_ Personal Trivia game night where they had had their butts kicked. "I'm getting kind of sick of losing."

Brainy looked dejected. "I apologize," he sighed. "It is my fault that I didn't know the name of your childhood pet or your birthday."

Nia realized that her comment may have come off as more accusatory than was intended. "Oh no, no, that's not what I mean," she said quickly, shaking her head. "I didn't do any better. But that's the point. If we want to win this game, even just _once_, we're going to need to get the upper hand."

Brainy squinted at her, clasping his hands behind his back. "And... how do you suggest getting this... 'upper hand'?"

"Practice," Nia replied, starting to grin. "How easy do you think it would be to snag the deck of trivia cards from Alex's bag?"

Brainy sent a quick, surprisingly discreet glance at Alex, the owner of the cards. She already had her purse on her shoulder but was busy talking (flirting) with Kelly. "I believe that I could... manage it," he said, a faint smile on his face.

Brainy did manage it, and two days later he and Nia were sitting on her couch. Her roommate had gone out for the evening (not an unusual occurrence), so they were alone with their trivia cards, their cans of soda and their bag of pretzels.

"I brought chocolate," Brainy announced, reaching into his bag to pull out a fairly large bag of m+m's. Nia reached for them, but he held the candy back. "Nuh uh. Whenever one of us gets an answer right, we get a piece of chocolate. That way, we will be operantly conditioned to remember the answers and be correct as much as possible."

Nia squinted. Psychology 101 had been awhile ago for her. "Okay... but aren't we already motivated enough because we want to beat our friends at our next game night?"

"Maybe so," Brainy allowed. "But it can't hurt."

Nia sighed but nodded, letting him place the tempting bag of chocolate on the table next to the pretzels.

"Okay," she said, rubbing her hands together as Brainy opened up the deck of the cards and laid them facedown on the couch in between them. "Let's get to it."

**linebreaker **

It was actually a full three weeks until Personal Trivia was suggested again. Nia and Brainy remained causally silent as Kara paired up with Lena, Alex and J'onn went together, and Kelly and James teamed up.

"Darn it," Brainy said, too theatrically. "Guess Nia and I are stuck together again."

Nia let out a sigh and resisted the urge to facepalm. "Discreet," she muttered to Brainy. "Real discreet."

"Thank you," he replied, not catching the sarcasm.

Alex smirked a little. "Okay, everyone, who's first?"

"We can go," Nia offered, as causally as possible. She reached for the first card. "Okayyy, Brainy... what's my favorite song?"

"Ooh, that's a tough one," Kara said sympathetically, glancing at Lena. "I don't even know if I know that one about you."

"Paper Rings by Taylor Swift," Brainy answered promptly. "And your second favorite is Dreaming with a Broken Heart by John Mayor."

Eyebrows and impressed nods were exchanged around the room. "Correct," Nia said, pleased. They had started well, but she was still a little nervous. Brainy had it easy: he could memorize entire Shakespeare plays in three days with his techno-organic brain. (a fact which should have made them unbeatable at past Personal Trivia nights. Brainy's problem was just that he couldn't memorize information he'd never known.) Nia had a human brain, and didn't have the memory he did. She just hoped that their preparation would be enough.

"Alright, who's next?" Nia asked, trying to remain casual. Lena and Kara volunteered, and Lena reached for a card.

"Okay, Kara," she said after reading its contents. "What are the names of my siblings?"

"To easy!" Alex booed, leaning back on the couch and draping her arm around Kelly even though they weren't on the same team.

"Lex Luthor," Kara replied with a sigh. "Though technically he's not your biological sibling."

"Correct," Lena replied with a dip of her chin. "Obviously."

Other than questions like that, the game was really on honor system. One half of the team could have been just pretending that the other half was right, to get a point. But the group relied on each others crippling honesty not to have that happen.

Alex and J'onn went next. "What is my favorite food?" Alex asked.

"I know!" Kara cheered from her chair.

"Uhhh..." J'onn looked blank. In all honesty, he and Alex weren't very good at this game, either. They were still better than Brainy and Nia, though (or, the _old_ Brainy and Nia), just because of the sheer amount of time they had spent together. "Pad Thai...?"

"Wrong!" Kara spoke up before her sister could. "It's blueberry pancakes."

"What?" Alex squinted at her. "Not it's not."

"Yes, it is."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, that's one of them. But my _favorite_ favorite food is homemade spaghetti and meatballs."

Everyone's eyebrows raised in surprise, except Kara, who nodded her agreement. "Fine," she allowed. "I can see that. Okay, James and Kelly, you're up."

The male half of the sibling pair reached for a card. "Oh, this is a good one," James said, nodding his approval. "What is my favorite show?"

Kelly frowned thoughtfully for a moment. "I can think of a few that you like..." she murmured. "But I think it's This Is Us, right?"

"Bingo," James said, holding out his hand for a high-five.

This time, Brainy reached for a card. "Ahhh..." he murmured, reading it. "What is my mother's name?"

The group went dead silent. Nia felt a sympathetic twinge in her stomach as she watched Brainy continue to just stare at the card, most likely as an excuse not to look at anyone else.

She remembered the moment she had picked this card from the deck and read it for him. Their first method of practice was to have one person pick a card, but both of them to answer it, until they got comfortable enough with the answers to play the game normally, albeit with two people. Back in her living room, Nia had picked the card, gave her answer in seconds, and then opened her mouth to tell Brainy to do the same.

But then she had paused. Because Brainy didn't talk about his family. _Ever_. The only thing he had shared with any of them was that he wanted nothing to do with them and that the Colauns were very, _very_ bad beings.

"You don't have to tell me," Nia had murmured softly, shuffling the card to the bottom of the deck as something to do. "I know it's... sensitive for you."

He shook his head, and to her surprise reached on and resting his hand on hers. She had flipped it so it was palm up, lacing their fingers together. "Her name..." he murmured. "Her name was Ostiena Dox."

The name came out of Nia's mouth now, with a hesitant confidence. "Ostiena Dox."

Alex glanced up sharply, her eyebrows jumping in surprise. Brainy nodded. "You are correct," he said. "My mother's name was Ostiena Dox. Kara and Lena, I believe you are next?"

Kara's mouth fell open a little. Nia could tell she was dying to ask her how she knew the name of Brainy's mother, of all people, but she knew when to take a hint. "Uh... right. Let's see..." she grabbed a card so hastily the top of the deck slipped. As Alex was righting the cards, Kara read her own. "Lena, who's my favorite musical artist?"

"Uhhh..." Lena floundered for a second. "I know you've said before... One Direction...?"

"Darn it," Kara sighed, shaking her head. "Shawn Mendez."

Lena snapped her fingers and the play moved on. Alex handed J'onn a card and he read it aloud. "Where do I work?"

Alex snorted. "That's an easy one. You work at your private investigating business."

"Bingo," J'onn nodded, smiling.

"If you had gotten that wrong, I would have been concerned," Kelly smirked, nudging Alex in the side. "Alright James, you're up."

"What is my favorite color?" James asked.

Kelly thought for a moment. "Well... when we were kids it was dark green..."

"Nailed it," James smiled, holding up his hand for another high-five. "If I had a favorite color, it would be green."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Alex, ever the drill sergeant for rules, waved her hands in the air. "Hold up. 'If you had a favorite color'? So dark green _isn't_ your favorite color?"

"Well, I don't have one..." James said slowly.

"Just let them have it," Nia said, shaking her head. She was feeling very generous in the point department, considering how extra-prepared she and Brainy were. "It's kind of a trick question when the person doesn't actually have an answer."

Alex humphed. "Then _that_ should be the answer; that they don't have a favorite color," she protested, but the others were already moving on to the next team.

Nia picked a card. "Favorite flavor of ice cream?"

Brainy smiled. He remembered the exact moment Nia had picked this card back at her apartment. She had reached for a pretzel and her hair had tumbled gracefully over her shoulder. He had, actually, known the answer to the question the first time it had been asked, but at the sight of her almost-impossible level of beauty his mind had gone completely blank.

Now, he answered confidently. "Coffee heath bar. And, if they've got them, chocolate sprinkles in a chocolate dipped waffle cone."

"Specific, much?" Kara asked with a snicker.

"Bingo," Nia beamed.

The game moved on. Brainy and Nia nailed every card: Nia, what's my favorite breakfast? Egos waffles with peanut butter. Brainy, where was I born? Parthas.

"Nia," Brainy asked, picking up a card. They were just starting the seventh round, with Brainy and Nia in the lead with six, Kara and Lena tied with Kelly and James at five, and Alex and J'onn at three (they were having an off night). "What was the name of my first significant other?"

It was a trick question. Brainy had never actually had a legitimate girlfriend, just hookups and flings here and there. "You've never had one," Nia answered, leaning back against the arm of the couch they were sharing and looking expectantly at Alex, who was currently keeping score.

"Wrong," Brainy said softly, and Nia's eyes shot up to his, surprised.

Kara threw her hands in the air. "_Finally_," she groaned. "You guys haven't missed one all evening!"

"Wait, wait, hold on," Nia spluttered, giving Brainy a bewildered look. "But you said-? So who was your first girlfriend, then?"

"You."

There was a moment in which Nia's eyes bugged out of her head, Kara choked, and Alex smothered her laugh with her hand. "Uhhh..." she said awkwardly. "Sorry... did we miss something?"

"It makes total sense," Kelly realized. "You guys suddenly know, like, _everything_ about one another."

"We're not- we-" Nia shook her head. "Brainy, we're-"

Brainy's face fell and his shoulders looped forward. "..Oh."

"That's not to say-" Nia tried again. "That's not say I don't- I don't _want_ to."

"...Oh...?"

Lena cleared her throat. "Should we, uh... give you guys the room?"

"That would be great," Nia murmured absently. "Thank you."

The group exchanged glances and then everyone got to their feet and headed to and adjoining room, leaving Brainy and Nia alone.

Now that they were alone, Nia felt her stomach clench with nerves. "Did you... did you think that, because I had you over to practice the trivia questions and stuff... that we were dating?"

Brainy shrugged listlessly. "I suppose that... deep down, I didn't," he murmured. "But we were going to your apartment and- and eating meals together and talking about ourselves. One-on-one. No, we did not hold hands -except that one moment- or... kiss, but other than those things what else is dating?"

Nia's mouth fell open a little. "I mean... I thought we were just doing it as, you know, friends. I thought that's what you would have wanted."

They sat and stared at each other awkwardly. Nia bit her lip. "Is that... _not_ what you would have wanted?"

"I'm sorry." Brainy shook his head. "I'm afraid I've lost what exactly you're asking me."

Heart in her throat, Nia squeezed her hands together in her lap. "One last trivia question," she murmured, figuring that, however this went, the Personal Trivia game would be over for the night.

Brainy raised his eyebrows and looked curiously at her, waiting.

"Brainy," Nia said softly. "Who do I have feelings for?"

Brainy frowned. "Uh... I don't... know?"

"Wrong answer," Nia murmured, leaning forward and pressing her lips gently to his for a second. When she pulled back she saw he was smiling, and felt a vice of tension release from her chest. "The answer is you."

**Author's Note: kljwekjkjf my babiesss I will go down with this ship :'))))**

**(I'm so happy that that can be followed by a smiley face now... Hooray for 5x04!)**


End file.
